A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousand of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by and a middle-aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year-old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth 3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be:
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?
Try not to miss the beauty of life coming your way.
Things have been exceptionally well and I will give you a quick taste of the last two months. I realize it has been some time since you last heard from me.
Just finished my second week of teaching and I am enjoying my classes. I am only teaching Olympics and my business elective this term. Last semester I had 8 sections of Oral English (once/week), 3 Olympics (twice/week), and my business elective (once/week). This semester I have 6 sections of Olympics and business.
I had close to 6 weeks off for Chinese New Year and I went to Cape Town, South Africa for 3.5 of those. I went with a friend who teaches at the university and we met up with his parents. We stayed and helped at a small college and gave the campus some greatly needed TLC. We painted some offices, some trim/fascia, the roof and did a lot of random here and there fix-it things. It was very nice to be out of the classroom for a while and use my hands more because I haven’t had that opportunity in some time but I missed China and it reconfirmed that this is where I am to be.
Although we spent a lot of time working, we did have some time for pleasure. We went on a safari, which was amazing. Words, pictures, and video cannot capture what it was like. I was so taken back and in awe of everything. I got to see a 2.5-ton rhino about 5 feet away from our truck, lions, cheetah, elephants, water buffalo/ox, and crocodile. I have tried to post video and pictures but for whatever reason it will not load. I have tried 5 times and am determined but rather frustrated. I think facebook and youtube hate me.
I will walk you through the first two weeks back.
18 FEB—Opportunity because of snow
We had some snow in Beijing, which doesn't happen often. It is cold but doesn't snow. There were some articles saying 'they' were making it snow like like they made it rain for the Olympics. Beijing really struggles with pollution but the day after it rains is normally significantly clearer and therefore prettier. We are also experiencing a moderate to significant drought and normally don't get much rain anyways but it hasn't rained in some time. That is why 'they' made it snow. The point of the story is that students have daily exercises between second and third period. They did not have exercises because of the snow and exercise time became free time. Three of my students stayed after class and spent their free time talking and hanging out with me. I have office hours every Wednesday where students can come and practice English and they all came and talked and set up a weekly time when they would come in. They are helping me with Chinese and I am helping them with English and telling them more about American culture and schooling.
20 FEB—Office sharing pictures
On Friday I was able to meet with one of my students and go over some pictures from holiday and catch up.
22 FEB—Server weekly meeting
Many of our team go to the 'The Noodle Restaurant.' We don't know its' actual name and it was dubbed the noodle restaurant and stuck ever since. It is quite close, small, cheap, quick, and the food is good so as you can probably imagine, all being fresh out of college we visit often...and by often, I mean often. (like multiple times a week; a mean averages 10-12 quai which is about $1.50-1.80) One of the servers has pretty good English and we were able to start talking with him more and some of us got his number. I started texting him and another teacher and I tried to help him pick an English name before the New Year holiday but he didn't like any of our suggestions. After break I wrote him we met for lunch last Sunday and he came over to my apartment after we ate and talked for about three hours. We set up Sundays as a time together and am just building relationship with him and working Chinese/English for each other and I am going through what I taught in Olympics that week. He is 21 and out on his own, trying to support himself on USD60/month working part-time and going to school. I am not exactly sure how that works but he is teaching himself English and was very glad and accepting when I offered to trade English and Olympics for Chinese.
25 FEB—Office opportunities continue with dinner and study plans
My Wednesday office hour students came back and we worked on Chinese for an hour, talked and went through my pictures from break. They gave me hw (study Chinese for next week…but I thought teachers didn’t do hw…wasn’t that one of the perks for teaching…?) and we set up dinner plans after office hours this Wed. with myself and another foreign teacher.
26 FEB—Tutor Ph.D
Something exciting got going this week, I started tutoring Ph.Ds an hour a week (English obviously). I had a great time, we connected well and were relaxed with each other. They are studying economics and work on English an hour everyday but I am the only business major of the five of us who tutor them so I was able to talk with another set of vocabulary and subjects that others cannot. I believe they enjoyed talking about something they obviously care about and it gives them an opportunity to work on their English within their discipline. Part of the reason for the English tutoring everyday is they are tentatively scheduled to visit/work/study to the US.
27 FEB—Basketball with my guys
I played basketball with my guys at lunch for 30 minutes (I don’t have class until elective starts which is this Friday and electives are after school from 4.15-5.45) and I got to play ball with them after school yesterday until about 6.30 then everyone had to go home.
I am still trying to post pictures. I made a youtube account and have tried to post video, all unsuccessful but I have not given up.
